Congress has announced a budget deal for 2014 that is, without a doubt, a complete sellout by Republicans. Spending, which was finally getting under control because of sequestration, now goes up $63 billion over the next two years.
This in exchange for new fees on airplane tickets and some long-term savings on entitlements. Anybody who has watched how things happen in Washington knows that the fees will stay and the long-term savings will be overturned by some future Congress.
Click here for a nice chart that details the supposed future savings.
To summarize, this budget deal is an excrement sandwich for anybody who cares at all about the debt and keeping the size of the federal government reasonable. And here’s the kicker: supporting it may just be the smartest thing to do.
Democrats are absolutely desperate to change the subject from Obamacare. They are praying ardently and vocally for another government shutdown and looking for any excuse to create one. They have gone on record as supporting this budget deal, so they are stuck — they must support it.
If Republicans don’t support this budget deal, we get three more months of “government shutdown fever,” with a compliant media turning the tea party into the bad guys. And attention once again drifts from the debacle of Obamacare.
Small government people would, in the long term, lose even more. There is a chance to for Republicans to retake the Senate and to hold the House and to keep focus on the failures of Obamacare all the way until 2016.
Make no mistake: there is no way to support this budget deal. Unless of course you care about the long-term consequences of even more nightmares created by Democrats in the future.
If you have better ideas, or disagree with my analysis, I am open to being convinced otherwise.